The present invention is directed to a vehicle tracking system for an automated vehicle washing system.
Automatic vehicle washes are well known and very popular. One goal of these vehicle washing systems is to wash as many vehicles as possible while providing an automated system so a customer does not have to wash a vehicle by hand. Some vehicle washing service stations provide one washing selection input station and subsequently the customer drives the vehicle forward to the vehicle washing system. In this system, vehicles enter one at a time into the washing system and the vehicles maintain approximately a single file line. Other vehicle washes have multiple pay points with multiple vehicle washing selection services available. After the customers enter their selections and pay for the selections at one of the multiple pay point systems, the vehicles typically exit the selection and pay area and enter a queue point area where they wait for entry into a washing tunnel.
When a customer purchases a vehicle washing service, a problem can arise if the vehicle washing equipment system does not receive the proper service selection that the customer ordered. A current solution to this problem, as generally know in the art, is to allow for one vehicle to pull forward from the pay point to a single file queue point. Once the vehicle reaches the single file point, another vehicle can be released from the pay area gate. In this way the system can provide the correct wash to the correct vehicle as opposed to confusing the identification of the vehicles and their respective washing selections.
Another problem associated with both of these vehicle washing systems is that there is a relatively high risk of not having a vehicle to wash when there is an open spot in the tunnel for a vehicle. This could happen if a vehicle does not immediately exit the vehicle washing selection input area and travel directly to the line for the vehicle washing tunnels. Accordingly, if the vehicles do not enter the line directly following their service selection, the timing of the service selection arriving at the vehicle washing station and the vehicle arriving at the vehicle washing station may be off. Consequently, the vehicle may receive the incorrect wash.
Additionally, it is important for efficiency purposes to have a vehicle in the tunnel at all times if there is a large buildup at the entry gate. If there is not a vehicle in the tunnel at all times, the overall efficiency of the vehicle washing system is decreased and the system can lose potential revenue. Furthermore, if a customer runs into a problem, for example, if the customer is putting a wallet away, waiting for a receipt to print, or any number of other things that could happen at the pay point, on a busy day efficiency is decreased as a whole as the vehicle is holding up the line and preventing a smooth flow of vehicles to the vehicle washing tunnel. In some high volume vehicle washes, efficiency is particularly important in that a small amount of time savings can lead to more vehicles entering the washing system. For example, some vehicle washes have vehicles enter at as high of a rate as one vehicle every approximately fifteen seconds. A decrease in the amount of time between vehicles can lead to a vehicle washing system with a likely increased efficiency and an increase in profitability.
In order to solve this problem, some vehicle washing system designs have a multiple gate and pay area solution in which there are multiple pay stalls for multiple vehicles to pay for vehicle washes. After making a vehicle wash selection and paying for the selection, the vehicles move through a gate towards the vehicle wash equipment and tunnel. The problem associated with this is determining to which vehicle a customer's vehicle washing service selection is associated. Many vehicle washing system designs have attempted to solve this by using people to input the vehicle selection service as the vehicle reaches the vehicle washing tunnel. Additionally, the vehicle washes will somehow mark a vehicle and then an operator in the tunnel entrance manually enters the vehicle number, picks a service, or uses some other mechanism to tell the tunnel which service or services to provide. The problem with this situation is that it uses a person, as an employee, to perform the task and thus increases the likelihood of error, fraud, or failure to provide the correct services each customer paid for.
Another potential difficulty with these vehicle washing systems is that multiple people are attempting to get into a vehicle washing tunnel that has only one access point. This can lead to multiple vehicle bottlenecks that can frustrate customers when they cannot immediately get into the vehicle wash. In turn, this can lead to decreased customer retention rates as customers may choose to go to a different vehicle wash if they become frustrated with the current system.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system in which vehicles can enter a vehicle wash in any order and do not have to comply with a specific sequence, thus increasing efficiency.
Accordingly, another object of the invention is to provide a system that is fully automated to prevent human error and increase efficiency.
A further object of the invention is to provide a vehicle tracking system that automatically pairs the vehicle with the vehicle washing selection choice in order to increase the number of vehicles that can be washed in a given amount of time by decreasing the number of vacant vehicle washing tunnels and vehicles waiting in line.
A further object of the invention is to provide a vehicle washing system in which multiple vehicles can be washed with maximum system efficiency by minimizing the time a vehicle is not in the vehicle wash.